Novelty yarn

ABSTRACT

A continuous filament slub yarn is described which comprises a substantially unbulked core yarn and an auxiliary yarn having slubbed and unslubbed portions along its linear length. The auxiliary yarn supplies the slubs in a random distribution and random size along the length of the yarn by looping upon itself and attaching to the core yarn by interlacing at least some of the auxiliary yarn filaments through the core yarn.

I v United States Patent [151 3,640,064

Palm et al. 1 Feb. 8, 1972 [54] NOVELTY YARN References Cited FOREIGNPATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [72] inventors: Clifford W. Palm, Denver, N.C.;William R. Gibson, Cumberland, Md. 557,020 10/1957 Belgium [73]Assignee: Celanese Corporation, New York, NY. 2,196 Great B [22] Filed:Jan. 19, 1 7 Primary Examiner-John Petrakes Attome -Thomas J. Mar an Stehen D. M h and H r- 4 155 y g l p urp y e [2]] .No bert M. Adrian,.lr.

Related U.S. Application Data [60] Continuation-impart of Set. No. 3 59,8l4, Mar. 25, [571 ABSTRACT 1964, abandoned, which is a dmslon ofAcontinuous filament slub yarn is described which comprises 81 L066 May1959 a substantially unbulked core yarn and an auxiliary yarn hav- [52]U S Cl 57,144 57/l40 BY 57,140 J ing slubbed and unslubbed portionsalong its linear length. 51 in c|. ..I )02g 3/34, 602 3/36 The auxiliaryY Supplies the Slubs in a random distribution 58 Field of Search .57/34B, 157 F, 1401, 144, and randem size along the length of the y y loopingp itself and attaching to the core yam by interlacing at least some ofthe auxiliary yam filaments through the core yarn.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures NOVELTY YARN BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 359,814, filedMar. 25, 1964, now abandoned, tion was a division of Ser. No. 811,066,filed May 5, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,144,747.

This invention relates to novelty slub bulk yarn, as well as to aprocess of and means for producing such yarn.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a heavy deniernovelty slub bulk yarn which presents an unusual appearance and whichcan be employed in the manufacture of a variety of fabrics suitable foruse as upholstery, draperies, clothing and the like.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a yarn of theaforesaid type which is composed of an unbulked core yarn surrounded andpenetrated by a multitude of loops and curls formed in an auxiliary orslub yarn when subjected to a bulking operation.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of a novelprocess of producing a higher denier novelty slub bulk yarn composed ofan unbulked core yarn in combination with a bulked, slub-formingauxiliary yarn.

Concurrently, it is an object of the present invention to provide meansfor combining a core yarn and an auxiliary yarn in such a manner as toimpart thereto the desired irregular slub distribution.

The foregoing and other objects and characteristics of the presentinvention will be more fully understood from a consideration of thefollowing detailed description thereof when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawing.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention a novelty slubyarn is produced by an intermittent relieving of the tension of one oftwo multifilament yarns fed simultaneously into a fluid bulking jet,whereby the untensioned or auxiliary yarn is violently whipped about andthe individual filaments thereof are formed into a multitude of loopsand curls embracing and penetrating the second yarn or core which isalways maintained under tension. Advantageously the resulting yarn hastwist in it, which serves to stabilize its structure by preventing thelooped filaments of the auxiliary yarn from separating from the core.The twist may be provided by taking up the product on a downtwister orby employing a core and/or auxiliary yarn which initially contain twist.Stability and strength are also imparted by the unbulked core.

More particularly, a continuous, multifilament slub yarn is providedcomprising a composite of a multifilament core yarn and a multifilarnentauxiliary yarn having slubbed and unslubbed portions along its linearlength, said core yarn being substantially unslubbed and said auxiliaryyarn having slubs of continuous filaments looped upon themselves with atleast some of said auxiliary yarn filaments being interlaced throughsaid core filaments, said slubs being randomly distributed along thelinear length of said yarn and being random in size, said yarn having atleast 200 slubs per 1,000 yards of yarn, at least 50 percent of saidslubs having a denier ratio of yarn denier to slub denier of at leastabout 1.1 to less than 3.0 with the remainder having a denier ratio ofat least 3.0, the spacing between slubs being greater than about 0.5inch and not more than about 120 inches and the average slub lengthbeing less than 2 inches.

DETAILS OF THE INVENTION The yarns may comprise nylon, polyesters suchas polyethylene terephthalate, rayon, polymers and/or A jet of the typecapable of being employed in this apparatus, and usually called an airjet, is fully disclosed in the copending application of Clifford W. Palmet al., Ser, No. 356,349, filed May 21, 1953, now U.S. Pat. No.2,942,402, and since such jet per se forms no part of the presentinvention, no further detailed description thereof is deemed necessaryherein.

In order to permit bulking of the auxiliary yarn it is necessary that atleast intermittently it be supplied to the bulking jet more rapidly thanit is taken away therefrom. The percent overfeed, i.e., 100 times thequotient of (feed rate minus withdrawal rate) divided by the withdrawalrate may range from about 10 to 600 percent or more, and preferablyabout 20 percent to 200-500 percent. The percent overfeed of coursetakes into consideration the slubs as well as the length of yarn betweenslubs. The product may be bulked between slubs, if desired, however, bysuitable selection of the normal supply speed of the auxiliary yarn.Thus the normal percent overfeed may be about 20 to 25 percent, higheroverfeeds reducing the yarn strength and producing a yarn in which theintermittent character of the bulking will be obscured; that portion ofthe total denier of each slub comprising auxiliary yarn on the averageranges from about 50 percent or less to about 90 percent or more andpreferably about 65 percent to percent.

The core passes through the system at slightly in excess of 0 percentoverfeed, e.g., it is supplied to the jet about 5 to 10 percent fasterthan it is withdrawn therefrom in order to accommodate the auxiliaryyarn filaments which enter between, and thus distend, the corefilaments.

The apparatus for forming the novel product comprises separate feeds forthe auxiliary yarn and core, a bulking jet, a takeup mechanism, andmeans for intermittently varying, e.g., speeding up, the feed of theauxiliary yarn to the jet. The variation of the feed of the auxiliaryyarn may be achieved by normally passing the yarn through a tension gatewhich is intermittently opened, by varying the speed of a positive feeddevice, by varying the path of the yarn from its supply to the jet, orthe like. A suitable device for effecting this variation comprises aspecial rotatabledrive roll for feeding the auxiliary yarn to be bulked.The surface of the roll is divided into yam-engaging and nonengagingareas which are not uniform along the effective length of the roll.Means are provided to traverse the yarn along the length of said specialroll to cause the yarn alternately to be engaged and disengaged,nonuniformly, by the yam-engaging surface. Thus, the nonengaging areamay comprise one or more serpentine depressions in the roll surface, aplurality of spaced depressions preferably randomly cut out of the rollsurface, or the like, the engaging areas may comprise high frictionmaterials. Advantageously, the roll surface is provided with randomcutouts and cooperates with a smooth-surfaced companion roll. When theyarn is gripped between the companion roll and the yam-engaging surfaceof the special roll the yarn is positively fed at predetermined speed.When the yarn passes between the companion roll and a depressed area ofthe special roll it is not positively fed but rather is pulled alongrapidly by the action of the jet.

An apparatus which has given accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an apparatus designed for carryingout the process and producing the yarn according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the elements of theapparatus shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a short length of the product.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, it will be seen that theapparatus according to the present invention comprises a pair of pigtailguides 10 and 11 which are positioned for guiding a yarn 12 to serve asa core and an auxiliary yarn 13 taken, respectively, from a pair ofbobbins or spools l4 and 15. The apparatus further includes a pair offeed rolls 16 and 17, one or both of which may be positively driven bygood results is shown in the A I A an any suitable means (not shown),for drawing the yarn 12 from bobbin 14. Following the pigtail guide 11there is provided a traverse bar 18 which may be reciprocatedlongitudinally of itself by any suitable means (not shown) and isprovided with a yarn guide loop or eye 19. A second pair of feed rollsand 21, one or both of which may be positively driven and the axes ofrotation of which are substantially parallel to the direction ofreciprocal movement of the traverse bar 18, is positioned adjacent thelatter and adapted to draw the auxiliary yarn 13 from the spool 15.,

The feed rolls 16 and 17 are of conventional construction,

one being preferably made of rubber or of a rubber-covered rigidmaterial, the other being made of steel. Of the feed rolls 20 and 21.for a purpose which will become clear presently, only the roll 21 is ofconventional construction, e.g., steel. Reference to FIG. 2 shows thatthe roll 20, which may be made of cork, neoprene or other materialhaving a high coefficient of friction, is provided over its entireperiphery with a plurality or recesses or cutouts 22, preferablyrandomly spaced. Although these are shown as being substantiallyrectangular in outline, it will be understood that both the shapes oroutlines and the distribution of the recesses 22 in the surface of theroll 20, hereinafter referred to as a cut roll, may be varied at will.

Positioned at the discharge side of the pairs of feed rolls 16-17 and20-21 is a yarn bulking, jet 23 which comprises a housing 24 having ayarn inlet tube 25 at its top and a yarn outlet passageway (not shown)at its bottom. Attached to the bottom of the housing 24 is a deflectorplate 26 oriented at a predetermined angle to the yarn outlet path. Thefunction of this plate will be more fully explained hereinafter. In theinterior of the housing 24 is defined a chamber through which the yarnto be bulked is passed, and the housing is further provided with a fluidinlet nipple 27 communicating with the chamber and adapted to beconnected to a line 28 leading from any suitable source of fluid underpressure, for example, compressed air or steam.

A pair of takeup or delivery rolls 29 and 30 of conventionalconstruction is arranged at the discharge side of the air jet 23 fordrawing the yarn from the latter and feeding it via a pigtail guide 31to a ringtail 32 by means of which the yarn is reciprocated along atakeup spool 33 while being wound thereon.

The auxiliary yarn 13, passes through the jet at the same time, but itis to be intermittently bulked. In order to accomplish this, the feedrolls 20 and 21 are driven at a peripheral speed which is equal to orsomewhat more than the driven peripheral speed of the delivery rolls 29and 30. Because the roll 20 is provided with the cutouts or recesses 22,the yarn 13 will be relieved of all tension whenever it passes betweenthe rolls 20 and 21 at a location corresponding to one of the recesses22. it will be seen, therefore, that as the yarn 13 is traversed backand forth along the longitudinal dimension of the cut roll 20 by thetraverse bar 18, it will first be gripped between the outer surface ofthe roll 21 and an uncut surface portion of the roll 20, thus being keptunder tension, will then be relieved of tension when located within theconfines of one of the recesses 22 asthe latter passes over the roll 21,will thereafter again be gripped and tensioned between the roll 21 andanother uncut surface portion of the roll 20, and so on.

Consequently, whenever the yarn 13 is not under tension, the variousfilaments thereof in the bulking chamber of the jet 23 will be whippedabout by the stream of compressed air in such a manner as to form amultitude of loops and curls around, over and through the unbulked andcontinually tensioned yarn 12. During this time the action of the jet 23draws the yarn 13 off its spool 15 at a rate which may be many times,e.g., about 125 to 600 percent of, the normal rate, i.e., many times theperipheral speed of the roll 21. Thus, there is formed in the jet asingle end of a new and composite yarn 34 which, as it leaves the jet 23through the outlet passageway thereof, first impinges against thedeflector plate 26, which may extend from the housing at an angle ofabout 15 to 75. Such impingement enhances and aids in the stabilizing ofthe loops and curls formed in the yarn, and the stability of the productyarn 34 may be still further enhanced by subjecting the yarn to a slightadditional twist, whereby the core yarn and the slubforming auxiliaryyarn become permanently affixed to one another.

As shown in FIG. 3, the product yarn 34 between slubs comprises a bundle35 of core filaments and a bundle 36 of auxiliary yarn filaments. At theslub 37 the auxiliary yarn filaments are bulked and interlaced throughthe core filaments which stabilized the bulk. Because of the presence ofthe core it is possible to obtain bulking of several hundred percent inthe slubs whereas in the absence of a core, whether bulked continuouslyor intermittently, about 50 percent or less bulking is a general maximumif reasonably strong yarn is to be produced.

The distribution of the slubs along the product yarn 34 is, of course,completely irregular due to the random distribution of the recesses 22in the surface of the cut roll 20, and in con junction with thereciprocating traverse bar 18. The use of the cut roll enables theformation of slubs ranging in length from as low as 0.375 inch to ashigh as 2 inches with intervening nonslubbed portions ranging in lengthfrom as low as 0.50 inch to as high as 120.25 inches.

In a representative run with the illustrated apparatus, employing acellulose acetate auxiliary yarn of 104 filaments united with 5.5 Zturns per inch into a 200 denier yarn and a high tenacity celluloseacetate core of 40 filaments united with 2.5 Z turns per inch into a 48denier yarn and taking up the product at 94 feet per minute with 2 turnsper inch, both rolls 17 and 21 operating at 10 percent overfeeds, thereis obtained the product described in the table.

TABLE Length unslubbed Length Unslubbed portion portion, subsequent SlubDenie (273 denier) inches slub, inches denier ratio As can be seen onanalysis of the above table, the yarn of the present invention hasrandomly distributed slubs of random slub size wherein the distancebetween slubs varies from a low of 0.5 inch to about inches and thereare more than 200 slubs per 1,000 yards of yarn. More particularly, theillustrated yarn has in excess of 2,000 slubs per 1,000 yards of yarn ascan be calculated by dividing the average slub length plus the averagedistance between slubs into the yarn length. The

denier ratio of yarn denier to the slub denier is obtained by dividingthe yarn denier into the slub denier. An examination of the above tablewill indicate that more than 50 percent of the slubs have a denier ratiobetween 1.1 and 3.0. The illustrated yarn in fact has about 61.5 percentof the slubs within this range. The remaining slubs have a ratio higherthan 3.0. The average slub length is less than 2 inches. Most of theslubs are an inch or more in length. This, of course, can be varied asdesired, as described herein.

it is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description is givenmerely by way of illustration and that many variations may be made inthe invention without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

l. A continuous, multifilament slub yam comprising a composite of amultifilament core yarn and a multifilament auxiliary yarn havingslubbed and unslubbed portions along its linear length, said core yarnbeing substantially unslubbed and said auxiliary yarn having slubs ofcontinuous filaments looped upon themselves with at least some of saidauxiliary yarn filaments being interlaced through said core filaments,said slubs being randomly distributed along the linear length of saidyarn and being random in size, said yarn having at least 200 slubs perl,000 yards of yarn, at least 50 percent of said slubs having a denierratio of yarn denier to slub denier of at least about 1.1 to less than3.0 with the remainder having a denier ratio of at least 3.0, thespacing between slubs being greater than about 0.5 inch and not morethan about inches and the average slub length being less than 2 inches.

2. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the slubs vary in length from about0.375 to about 2.0 inches.

3. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the average slub length is more than1 inch.

4. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the average distance between slubsis 14 to 15 inches.

5. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein at least one of said core yarn andauxiliary yarn is cellulose acetate.

6. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the core yarn and the auxiliary yarnboth contain an individual twist.

7. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary and core yarn aretwisted together.

1. A continuous, multifilament slub yarn comprising a composite of amultifilament core yarn and a multifilament auxiliary yarn havingslubbed and unslubbed portions along its linear length, said core yarnbeing substantially unslubbed and said auxiliary yarn having slubs ofcontinuous filaments looped upon themselves with at least some of saidauxiliary yarn filaments being interlaced through said core filaments,said slubs being randomly distributed along the linear length of saidyarn and being random in size, said yarn having at least 200 slubs per1,000 yards of yarn, at least 50 percent of said slubs having a denierratio of yarn denier to slub denier of at least about 1.1 to less than3.0 with the remainder having a denier ratio of at least 3.0, thespacing between slubs being greater than about 0.5 inch and not morethan about 120 inches and the average slub length being less than 2inches.
 2. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the slubs vary in lengthfrom about 0.375 to about 2.0 inches.
 3. The slub yarn of claim 1wherein the average slub length is more than 1 inch.
 4. The slub yarn ofclaim 1 wherein the average distance between slubs is 14 to 15 inches.5. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein at least one of said core yarn andauxiliary yarn is cellulose acetate.
 6. The slub yarn of claim 1 whereinthe core yarn and the auxiliary yarn both contain an individual twist.7. The slub yarn of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary and core yarn aretwisted together.